Where to find the best pizza in Lincoln

Though Lincoln may be a relatively small city, the pizza scene here is anything but! With so many options, from classy sit-down restaurants to trendy takeaway spots, it’s not easy to decide where to satisfy your cravings. After sampling some of the city’s finest offerings, we’ve put together this guide to help you find the best pizza in Lincoln for your treat meal.

As with all our Lincoln food guides, this is an ongoing work in progress, and we will add new pizza joints as and when we try them.

Caffè Portico: family-run Italian restaurant

Independent, family-run restaurants are the heartbeat of Lincoln’s food scene, and Caffè Portico is one that has stood the test of time since it opened in 2011.

This ambient, relaxed Italian restaurant is within a minute’s walk from one of the busiest parts of Lincoln High Street, but its location is also nicely secluded for escaping the crowds.

While Caffè Portico serves a range of Italian food, including delicious pastas, as well as some tantalising homemade cakes, the pizzas are its true showstoppers.

Hidden away at the rear of the building is a huge outdoor wood burning oven. Simone, the owner, invited us to witness the process in action, and it really is an eye-opener. The expert chefs construct the pizzas in a matter seconds, rolling the dough and adding fresh ingredients, and then it takes 90 seconds to cook, inches away from the flames.

Take a look at our Instagram reel to see how it works:

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Lisa and I tried out a pizza as part of a gifted meal courtesy of the team at Caffè Portico. There are nearly 30 pizzas to choose from, from the traditional to the imaginative.

We decided to try the “Parmigiana Speciale” with aubergine, pancetta, smoked provolone and baby tomatoes. Fresh from the oven, you will soon see why these pizzas have drawn so much acclaim. It was nothing short of delicious.

Simone talked to us about his family’s roots in Turin, Italy, a dramatically beautiful city that is depicted in various paintings on Caffè Portico’s walls. Pizza-making is the life and soul of this place.

And that comes across in the quality. The dough consistency is honed to perfection, and the flavours perfectly balanced. You will want to keep coming back until you’ve tried every option on the menu.

Caffè Portico is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday serving breakfast and lunch options, including pasta, sandwiches, salad and soups.

Pizza is served 5pm–10pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and all day on Saturdays.

Slow Rise: vegetarian sourdough pizzas

For many of us, the lockdown days of the Covid-19 pandemic conjure up strange and difficult memories, but some heartwarming success stories also emerged from the haze. One such story is Slow Rise, which began its life as a couple’s mobile catering company and is now one of Lincoln’s most popular pizzerias.

Rosie and Lewis are the local couple behind the Slow Rise phenomenon. Having started the mobile pizza business in July 2019, they pivoted to running a takeaway and delivery service from their garden at home when lockdown hit. This proved to be wildly popular, and within a few months they were able to open a premises in central Lincoln, a few paces away from where the top of the High Street meets The Strait.

Inside, Slow Rise has the vibe of trendy takeaway meets rustic café. The furnishings are simplistic and unassuming, with plain walls, a bare brick archway, smooth wooden tables and plastic yellow bar stools. But somehow, it still feels like the ideal place for a date night.

It helps that alcohol is on the menu; we quaffed some tasty craft beers and house cocktails with our pizzas. You can try quirky concoctions like a “zenzero mule” (vodka, ginger spiced tea, lavender syrup and lemon) or a “basilico sour” (gin, homemade basil syrup, lemon, chambord and foamer).

But of course, the star of the show is the pizza.

The name Slow Rise a reference to the slow-proved dough that Rosie and Lewis have developed for their pizzas. It results in a puffed-up risen crust that is full of flavour. I am known to leave pizza crusts uneaten more often than not, but I never do that here.

It might put some people off that Slow Rise don’t have any meat on their pizzas. As meat eaters ourselves, we can attest that you shouldn’t let this deter you. Time and time again we will choose Slow Rise when we want a takeaway hit or a fun meal out.

Their pizzas just taste phenomenal, and the menu is full of creative touches and interesting textures. For example, the “Smokey” with crispy sage among the ingredients is a mindblower, with a delicious tang from Snowdonia smoked cheddar.

There are often special limited-time pizzas as well. I couldn’t resist trying a “Blue Cheese” pizza that was laced with blue stiltion, figs, tenderstem broccoli, lemon zest and walnuts. It was like a cheese board on a pizza that melts in your mouth all at once.

If you have any room for desserts, you can try a signature house tiramisu. I love the raspberry version, but you can also get a classic, mocha or biscoff.

Slow Rise is open for evening meals from Tuesday to Sunday and at lunchtime on weekends.

Dough LoCo: pizzas, craft beer and cocktails

With a prime location by the gates of Lincoln Castle, Dough LoCo is one of the freshest faces on the Lincoln pizza scene, having opened its doors in September 2021. Like Slow Rise, this is a local couple’s enterprise with a back-story that is rooted in the hardships of the pandemic.

A little further back in 2020, married couple Matt and Rachel created “Weirdough’s Pizza Emporium” as a means of raising funds for the NHS. When Matt lost his job, the couple expanded the pizza-making venture into a business, running it out of the now-closed West End Tap pub.

When this translated into a resounded success, the next step was a major rebrand, and the opening of Dough LoCo.

Inside Dough LoCo the restaurant is spacious and funky, with atmospheric disco-ball lighting, bright colours and stencil-scribbled tables. Outside there is a sheltered courtyard with bright graffiti-daubed walls that match the boldness of the interior.

While “Weirdough” isn’t part of the brand name any more, it lives on in the title of the house signature pizza. The Weirdough is a spice-infused combination of three cheeses, red onions, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, Nduja, rocket, balsamic glaze and garlic drizzle – completely by the defining flavour of Dough LoCo’s house marinara.

The Weirdough is one of more than a dozen delicious pizzas on offer at Dough LoCo. I like “The Hunter”, a meaty extravaganza of pepperoni, Italian sausage, chorizo, Nduja and prosciutto.

There are plenty of options for non-meat-eaters too, with six vegan pizzas on the menu (including a vegan version of the Weirdough), and there is a kids’ menu as well.

Dough LoCo like to do things a little differently, and one of its playful quirks is the use of special pizza-cutting scissors instead of the usual roller blade. This is even more fun than it sounds!

There are often special themed pizzas to try as well. On our latest visit when our friends visited for the weekend, I tried a German-style “Brat to the Future” pizza with bratwurst, smoked cheese, sauerkraut and curried ketchup. It was like being back at the Lincoln Christmas Market for my fix of currywurst – an absolute treat.

And you can wash your pizza down with a refreshing glass of craft beer or a house cocktail. All of this is why Dough Loco is one of our favourite spots for a casual weekend treat meal with friends.

In addition to the uphill Lincoln location on Drury Lane, Dough Loco has also partnered with The White Hart in Nettleham. This means you can enjoy their signature pizzas in the setting of a cosy Lincolnshire village pub.

Best pizza in Lincoln: map

You can see the locations of the pizza restaurants in Lincoln featured in this guide on the map below:

Do you have an opinion on the best pizza in Lincoln? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Looking for more food recommendations in the city? See our guide to the best Sunday roasts in Lincoln.

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